The Land of Deepening Shadow eBook

For more than forty years Prussia has employed every
means but kindness to Germanise the conquered territory.
But though she has hushed every syllable of French
in the elementary schools and forced the children
to learn the German language and history only; though
freedom of speech, liberty of the Press, rights of
public meeting, have been things unknown; though even
the little children playing at sand castles have been
arrested and fined if in their enthusiasm they raised
a tiny French flag, or in the excitement of their
mock contest cried “Vive la France!”; though
men and women have been fined and thrown into prison
for the most trifling manifestations that they had
not become enthusiastic for their rulers across the
Rhine; and though most of the men filling Government
positions—­and they are legion—­are
Prussians, the Alsatians preserve their individuality
and remain uncowed.

Having failed in two score of years to absorb them
by force, Prussia during the war has sought by scientific
methods carried to any extreme to blot out for ever
themselves and their spirit.

To do the German credit, I believe that he is sincere
when he believes that his rule would be a benefit
to others and that he is genuinely perplexed when
he discovers that other people do not like his regulations.
The attitude which I have found in Germany towards
other nationalities was expressed by Treitschke when
he said, “We Germans know better what is good
for Alsace than the unhappy people themselves.”

The German idea of how she should govern other people
is an anachronism. This idea, which I have heard
voiced all over Germany, was aptly set forth before
the war by a speaker on “The Decadence of the
British Empire,” when he sought to prove such
decadence by citing the fact that there was only one
British soldier to every 4,000 of the people of India.
“Why,” he concluded, “Germany has
more soldiers in Alsace-Lorraine alone than Great
Britain has in all India.”

That is a bad spirit for the world, and it is a bad
spirit for Germany. She herself will receive
one great blessing from the war if it is hammered
out of her.

CHAPTER XIX

THE WOMAN IN THE SHADOW

The handling of the always difficult question of the
eternal feminine was firmly tackled by the German
Government almost immediately after the outbreak of
war.

To understand the differences between, the situation
here and in, Germany it is necessary first to have
a little understanding of the German woman and her
status. With us, woman is treated as something
apart, something on a pedestal. In Germany and
in Austria the situation is reversed. The German
man uses his home as a place to eat and sleep in,
and be waited upon. The attitude of the German
woman towards the man is nearly always that of the
obedient humble servant to command. If a husband
and wife are out shopping it is often enough the wife
who carries the parcels. In entering any public
place the middle-class man walks first and the wife
dutifully follows. When leaving, it is the custom
for the man to be helped with his coat before the
woman. Indeed, she is generally left to shift
for herself.